TORONTO — DeMar DeRozan, three years and seven games into his NBA career, did not suddenly become Vince Carter Monday night. But he offered his best Carter imitation.

DeRozan’s 37-point, eight-rebound effort in 60 minutes of a triple-overtime loss to Utah was remarkably similar to a Carter line in another triple-overtime loss in 2001, this one to Sacramento: 38 points and 19 rebounds in 63 minutes.

Carter was nearing the end of this third, and best, season with the Toronto Raptors. He averaged 25 points per game in 2000-01. He had 30 or more points in 29 games. The sensational was often routine.

DeRozon has scored 30 or more points just seven times in his career, but his performance was one of the most memorable individual efforts by a Raptor not named Vince Carter.

In the 2001 game against Sacramento, Carter did not leave the floor, and for good reason: Just before the trade deadline, then-general manager Glen Grunwald made two deals that momentarily decimated the Raptors roster.

Toronto was short on bodies, and Carter played the entire game as a result.

Dwane Casey had a bit more leeway Monday, but not much. Landry Fields and Alan Anderson, two swingmen who started the year in the rotation, were injured. With the coach unwilling to play rookie Terrence Ross much, the Raptors had three healthy wing players — DeRozan, Linas Kleiza and Dominic McGuire. Kleiza fouled out after 30 minutes of playing time. So DeRozan played and played and played.

“It’s more of a mental thing,” he said of his fatigue. “Of course you get tired. Just mentally, [you] fight through it.”

Throughout the game, DeRozan showed flashes of true basketball excellence. He hit no fewer than three fadeaway jumpers out of the post, spinning clockwise toward the baseline to make near-impossible shots. In the final minute of overtime, he nearly won the game. He came off of a screen, accepted a pass from Jose Calderon, took a dribble toward the rim and dunked over a helpless defence. This was really the stuff of Carter at his best.

But at the end of the first overtime, DeRozan showed his limitations. The Raptors ran an isolation play for DeRozan, and that is not where his offence comes from. He could not shake power forward Paul Millsap, and was forced into a very difficult jumper from the elbow. It never really had a chance.

It is also a play that never should have been called. The Raptors’ only above-average isolation player, Kyle Lowry, was in a suit Monday night.

But if you want to have hope for DeRozan’s future, look at his work in the post, an area he worked to improvement over the summer. Not only is he scoring out of the post — he absolutely massacred the smaller Randy Foye on one play in overtime — but he is also making good decisions there, finding open shooters when the opposition closes on him.

“He’s reading the defences,” Casey said. “He’s passing the ball out, which is what I love. He found people when they started to bring help. He’s done a heck of a job of just maturing as a basketball player. That’s what’s beautiful to see.”

Now, if the Raptors do not want observers to think their 1-6 start is indicative of their true nature, then DeRozan cannot be crowned a changed player after just seven games. However, his player efficiency rating is at 17.8 right now, above the league average for the first time of his career.

While previous improvements in his game have been the result of him simply having the ball in his hands more often, now DeRozan is making more of those opportunities.

It is far too early to call the four-year, $38-million US contract — that Raptors president and general manager Bryan Colangelo gave him before the year — a good decision. But with the way he is playing, DeRozan looks hell-bent on turning that into a legitimate discussion.